Modular Smartphones: Are We There Yet?

Smartphone industry seems to have reached a saturation point, where the only innovation that happens, is with a faster processor, or a better, high resolution display, or a better camera. But none of these upgrades actually offer a very unique user experience.

Sure a better display would definitely look good, a faster performing hardware will help us be more productive, and better optics will help us capture our memories in a much better way, but there isn't something groundbreaking happening, something revolutionizing, that puts us in a state of trance.

I miss the days when brands like Nokia or Motorola would compete to deliver unique devices which not only performed well, but awed everyone with its sheer engineering feat and beauty. Be it the Nokia communicator or the Moto Razr, and many others during this era.

Today we see phones that are identical to each other, giant glass displays in front and a camera at the back, with either glass or metal or plastic bodies. Gone are the days for the flips, the swivels and the sliders. These phones surely feel pretty dated from today's standards, but they did revolutionize the way smartphones were imagined.

There haven't been any interesting inventions in the smartphones these days. Sure we have the flexible technology, where we've got flexible displays, flexible SoC.'s and we're close to getting a working flexible prototype, but getting a production ready prototype will still take time. One such idea that actually got me thinking was from a video two years back, which went viral on YouTube.

This video showed an idea of making our smartphones modular, where we can swap out outdated parts and switch them for upgraded hardware or optics, and we don't actually need to change our phones for it, just like on a desktop PC. This was called Phonebloks. Although this was just a concept, it got manufacturers thinking, and Google stepped in, to make this dream into a reality by initiating 'Project Ara.'

However it had been two years since Project Ara was being worked on and there weren't any massive updates on its completion. Meanwhile LG at MWC 2016, created a bang, by launching its flagship the G5, which came with add-on modules, which LG calls as LG Friends, where users can swap modules into the smartphone for extra battery, or better audio etc.

This was a definitely something we weren't expecting, and this very much was like a modular smartphone, and its consumer ready. Sure these modules didn't entirely made the smartphone modular, as one couldn't swap for a better hardware or display, but definitely was a start.

Then at Google I/O 2016, in May, Google introduced a near- ready prototype of the much awaited Project Ara, where users are swapping modules for a better camera or for a better speaker etc. Google promises to reveal the actual device by the end of this year. But this too didn't show us any sort of upgradability of actual hardware, such as processors or RAM's.

Last week, Motorola unveiled its flagship Moto Z and Moto Z Force, these phones too were modular, however, these were slightly better and more practical than LG's G5, as in-order to swap the modules, the device didn't need to be switched off, and the modules available also look good, as they double up as a back cover too, with a few designed by Kate Spade. You coudl also get a JBL speaker module, or a projector module, all these could fit at the back of the smartphone, just like the case.

So if you were to ask me as to have we really entered the modular smartphone era, I'd say we definitely have, and sure we aren't very close to the destination, we are very far from where we began.

Of course there are numerous barriers to overcome, in order to achieve a true modular smartphone, like with the SoC. manufacturers to create the modules, and the performance and practicality that they must offer, but we definitely have got something unique and revolutionizing in the smartphone industry, just like early smartphones were back in the day, and I'd love to see how this transforms in the coming years.

Source: Modular Smartphones: Are We There Yet?